The actress proves without a doubt that she's always up for a challenge

What do you do after your first big leading role, in 1996's Jerry Maguire, catapults you into the public domain as America's apple-cheeked sweetheart— and spawns one of the corniest and most irresistible lines in late-twentieth-century cinema: "You had me at hello"? It's a testament to Renée Zellweger's acting chops that over the next few years, she would do a send-up of that guileless innocence in the delirious Nurse Betty, and then in Bridget Jones's Diary klutz it up, tart it up (with the hips and boobs that came with the 30 pounds she gained for the part), and outfit it with a dead-on English accent.

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Nobody tugs at the heartstrings with more wit and winsomeness than Zellweger. She's put adorable out of reach: the feisty romantic underdog (Down With Love), the '20s-slash-'30s-era trouper (wisecracking in Leatherheads, saintly as the Cinderella behind pugilist Russell Crowe in Cinderella Man), and the unsinkable gal from the wrong side of the crick (her Oscar-winning turn as Ruby Thewes in Cold Mountain). For Zellweger, determinedly upbeat and philosophical, every role is a milestone on an unfolding journey of self- discovery: "You know pretty much immediately if a movie needs to be a part of your life experience," she says. "From every film I've done, I leave wiser and hopefully a little better as a person."

For the shrewd director, the challenge is to tap into that hunger to charm the camera (you think it's easy being adorable on demand?), that vulnerability that is the hallmark of her best work. Director Rob Marshall understood that for Chicago to succeed, the audience would have to fall in love with Roxie Hart—on paper, not so lovable, a wannabe vaudevillian so desperate to make it, she tries to leverage murdering her lover into a showbiz career. Zellweger, despite having virtually no experience in musical theater, threw herself into the role and almost sang and danced her way to an Oscar (she wuz robbed!). "Renée is the most disciplined person I know," Marshall says. "She's also a girl from Katy, Texas, who has become an international star, so I think she connected with the character. Although I don't think she'd kill somebody to get there."